JOHNSTOWN — Dispensing political slogans and pointed barbs in her trademark folksy tone, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin thrilled a raucous crowd of supporters Saturday in Johnstown.

And while last week’s headlines focused on the nation’s faltering economy, Palin shaped her half-hour speech around a different theme: Abortion.

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Palin laid down clear battle lines on that hot-button issue, saying Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is a “radical.”

In contrast, she argued, voting the John McCain/Palin ticket into the White House would foster a “culture of life.”

“On Nov. 4, it’s going to come down to what we believe in,” Palin told a crowd packed into Cambria County War Memorial Arena.

Facing thousands of people who had been warmed up by speeches from local politicians and an acoustic performance by country music star Aaron Tippin, the Alaska governor noted that she was standing in “the proud home of the Johnstown Chiefs.”

“I gotta believe we have a strong showing of hockey moms for McCain,” she said.

She also mentioned her children and said her husband, Todd, who was not present, is a “hard-working, all-American guy” who would feel welcome in Johnstown.

But Palin quickly got down to business, citing Obama’s now-infamous comments in April about “bitter” people in small towns.

“I don’t know what to make of a candidate who would say that,” Palin said.

While Obama has claimed that his words were misinterpreted, his statement has become a favorite theme for Republicans. It was mentioned no fewer than three times at Saturday’s rally.

Palin reserved her harshest criticism, though, for Obama’s pro-abortion stance. Palin set up that part of her speech by speaking about her infant son, Trig, who was born with Down syndrome.

“Every child has something to contribute to the world if we give them that chance,” she said.

From there, she referenced a comment Obama made earlier this year at Greater Johnstown High School during a campaign stop.

“He said that a woman shouldn’t be, quote, ‘punished with a baby,’ ” Palin said.

“And ladies and gentlemen, he said that right here in Johnstown. It’s about time that we called him on it.”

She contended that Obama will appoint judges to “activist courts that will continue to smother the open and democratic debate that we deserve and that we need on this issue of life.”

And Palin added that Obama “is a politician who has long since left behind even the middle ground” on abortion.

It is an issue that could cause trouble for Obama in this area, where some socially conservative Democrats remain staunchly opposed to legalized abortion.

The Obama campaign did not backpedal on the issue Saturday, with senior adviser Anita Dunn saying Palin’s comments show that “the right to choose hangs in the balance” in the upcoming election.

“While Senator McCain and Governor Palin will make the right to choose illegal, Senator Obama will protect that right, while working to reduce the need for abortions and find common ground on this issue,” Dunn said in a written statement.

The campaign also objected to Palin’s use of the “punished with a baby” quote.

While Obama was responding to a question about abortion during the March 29 rally in Johnstown, the campaign contends he was speaking in the context of sex education.

Obama representatives on Saturday issued the full text of the Democratic candidate’s Johnstown quote:

“Look, I’ve got two daughters – 9 years old and 6 years old,” Obama said at the time. “I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information.”

Saturday’s rally wasn’t all about abortion, as Palin covered a variety of other issues.

On the war in Iraq, she said McCain supported the current troop surge and “isn’t afraid to use the word ‘victory.’ ”

“Just once, I want to hear Barack Obama say he wants America to win,” Palin said.

Obama spokeswoman Andrea Mead responded by saying McCain is “stuck in the past” and will fight on indefinitely in Iraq.

“Senator Obama certainly wants America to win, but he wants to win the right war in the right place,” Mead said. “He wants to end the war in Iraq and focus on the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Palin did briefly address the current economic meltdown, saying a McCain administration would encourage lower taxes and a “pro-growth agenda” and would “get this economy put back on the right track.”

And with Democrats consistently arguing that McCain represents four more years of President George W. Bush’s policies, Palin also sought to distance her campaign from the current administration.

“That strategy, it’s really starting to wear pretty thin,” she said, “because John McCain, he didn’t just come out of nowhere. He is his own man.”

Mead countered: “What’s wearing thin is the McCain campaign’s continued attempt to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign by resorting to dishonest attacks on Senator Obama’s character and record.”

At Saturday’s rally, though, Obama’s supporters stayed outside. And inside the arena, it was all about Palin, who used an informal style to connect with the crowd.

When a wailing baby interrupted her speech at one point, she didn’t miss a beat.

“I love that sound,” she said. “And please let that baby keep on crying.”

Before the rally, Palin supporters largely ignored the 80 to 100 union members and Pennsylvania Veterans for Obama who protested across the street from the War Memorial.

They voiced their opinions with chants and signs.

“Bush/McCain, more of the same,” they chanted.

Dave Casker of Pennsylvania Veterans for Obama was with that crowd.

“I got specifically into the veterans aspect of it because I feel McCain was portraying veterans as unanimously behind him,” the Johnstown resident said.

“That’s not true.”

In fact, Casker said, McCain’s “voting in the Senate is very poor in regards to the veterans. I thought he was getting a pass on that.”



Staff writer Bernie Hornick contributed to this story.